Thinking real hard on this...

[Mr. Coffee]

I understand why someone would want to bring a camp stove. Just in my experience the value add of a camp stove that burns wood isn't very high on a trip. In theory yes you'd need less fuel for a given amount of BTUs but in practice it is rare that there will be enough available wood for a stove but not enough for a campfire. Most established campgrounds are pretty efficiently picked clean of fuel.

For the money the very best deal is to build yourself a small alcohol stove. If you have tin snips and some epoxy you can make a decent one from a soda can. And the fuel is universally available at gas stations. Yes, they don't have a very high heat content so will boil slowly, but for basically nothing and in a tiny amount of space you can have a decent water boiler.

If you spend a bit more you can buy one of the zillions of single-burner camp stoves that run butane/propane mixes. Again the fuel is universally available at Wal-mart through the magic of in-store delivery. And decent stoves can be quite inexpensive, this popular one is under $20:

Amazon.com

 

[Art Deco]

Obviously this is my first experience with a wood burning camp stove, and there is always a learning curve with cooking anythinng more than just boiling water.

This stove (and probably all the woodd burners ) has a saucer for alchol or sterno. I have used sterno occasionally, and wouldn't try to use it fpr anyrhing much.

40 years ago I bought my first camp stove for probably $20 or less.. That same stove is still available from Optimus (for $130 !)

I think the little $20 wood burner will be quite good enough

The Kelty seems like a good design though, especially for a small group.

 

[spokewrench]

For the money the very best deal is to build yourself a small alcohol stove. If you have tin snips and some epoxy you can make a decent one from a soda can. And the fuel is universally available at gas stations. Yes, they don't have a very high heat content so will boil slowly, but for basically nothing and in a tiny amount of space you can have a decent water boiler.

In 5th grade I had a still in the basement to make ethanol as fuel. I tried it and didn't like it. The possibility of a spill and the nearly invisible flame made it a fire hazard. Anyway, production wasn't efficient. My parents would have become suspicious if I'd built a wood fire in the basement, so I burned alcohol to distill alcohol. I thought of sharing it with friends at school, but our teacher was a real busybody!

My experience with solid fuel tablets and plastic explosive was better. @Nvreloader says he just wants a cup of coffee. One tablet should be enough. If it's way too much, he could start by cutting it in half.